It is Europe that is now in focus for Mr Chambers. He has spent the past month meeting national leaders on a regional tour to announce investments in the so-called internet of things — the billions of devices with online connectivity that are aimed at improving areas such as healthcare and transport.

Cisco predicts that 50 billion devices will be connected by 2020 and 500 billion by 2030, as “smarter” internet-enabled equipment is introduced.

Europe has actually been one of Cisco’s’ stronger markets, growing for the past six quarters, Chambers said in May. (It is China that’s been giving Cisco a belly-ache.)

But one of Chambers favourite things to do is to fly around meeting with world leaders sharing his vision for the future and Cisco’s roll in it.

Right now, he’s focused on ensuring that as billions of devices join the internet, they do so on an internet that is still using mostly Cisco equipment. But that’s not a given. Many of these devices will be joining the internet thanks to cloud computing and many of the largest cloud computing vendors (Amazon, Google) use few of Cisco’s equipment. They tend to use lower-cost alternatives.

Chambers’ latest tactic is a fire-and-brimstone warning. The internet of things will change the business world, he says, and those who miss it won’t survive.

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